BOONTON, N.J., Feb. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Unigene Laboratories, Inc. (PINK: UGNE) today announced that for the second year in a row it has received the Drug Delivery Partnerships™ ("DDP") Innovation Award in the Industry Achievement category in recognition of the Company's 2012 clinical advances in the oral delivery of peptides.

This year's DDP Award recipients were voted on and selected by conference attendees, including leading scientists, pharmaceutical executives and drug delivery key opinion leaders, at the 17th Annual Drug Delivery Partnerships in San Diego, CA. This Industry Achievement Award honors Unigene as the Company that has made the greatest contribution to the field of drug delivery throughout 2012. Unigene also won the DDP Innovation Award at last year's meeting in February 2012.

Ashleigh Palmer, Unigene's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Receiving the Industry Achievement Award in consecutive years is a testament to the value of our Peptelligence™ platform and its place as a true breakthrough in peptide drug delivery. As we embark on 2013, Unigene is committed to being the partner-of-choice for pharmaceutical companies seeking to capitalize on the significant opportunities that orally delivered peptides offer in the treatment of numerous debilitating diseases."

Dr. Nozer Mehta, Unigene's Chief Scientific Officer, said, "We are extremely honored to accept the 2013 Drug Delivery Partnerships Industry Achievement Award. In clinical development of our own peptide programs or via our external licensing program with Unigene's Peptelligence technology, we continue to demonstrate that our unique combination of technological expertise and business development acumen has the potential to transform the way in which peptide drugs are developed and administered."

As the leader in the design, delivery, manufacture and development of peptide-based therapeutics, Unigene is focused on advancing its own pipeline of novel, proprietary peptide product candidates focused on metabolic disease and inflammation as well as exploiting its industry-leading Peptelligence™ platform of peptide oral drug delivery and manufacturing assets, expertise and capabilities by building a robust portfolio of strategically partnered opportunities.

"We are very proud to recognize Unigene as the DDP Innovation Award for the second year in a row," remarked Heather King, Drug Deliver Partnerships. "Without question, Unigene has secured its position as a true innovator in oral peptide delivery and, more broadly, throughout the drug development and delivery industry."

About Unigene Laboratories, Inc.

Unigene Laboratories, Inc. is a leader in the design, delivery, manufacture and development of peptide-based therapeutics. The Company is building a robust portfolio of proprietary partnerships in this expanding drug class based on its Peptelligence™ platform. Peptelligence™ encompasses extensive intellectual property covering drug delivery and manufacturing technologies, unsurpassed research and development expertise, and proprietary know-how representing a genuine distinctive competence. Core Peptelligence™ assets include proprietary oral and nasal peptide drug delivery technologies, and proprietary, high-yield, scalable and reproducible E. coli-based manufacturing technologies.

Safe Harbor statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to Unigene's ability to build a robust portfolio of proprietary partnerships in peptide-based therapeutics based on its Peptelligence™ platform. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various risk factors. These known and unknown risk factors include, but are not limited to: the delay in obtaining or the failure to obtain regulatory approvals for our products and the products of our licensees that may generate royalty and milestone payments to us, our ability to achieve product sales and royalties, competition, our dependence on other companies to commercialize, manufacture and sell products using our technologies and our ability to enter into favorable new agreements with such companies, our ability to cut expenses and maintain efficiencies, our ability to enter into new financing arrangements, the ability of our products to gain market acceptance and increase market share, the uncertainty of results of animal and human testing, the risk of product liability and liability for human clinical trials, our dependence on patents and other proprietary rights and the risks associated with patent litigation, dependence on key management officials, the availability and cost of capital, the availability of qualified personnel, changes in, or the failure to comply with, governmental regulations, general economic and business conditions, our history of losses and ability to achieve profitability, litigation and other risk factors discussed in our Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "potential," "continue," and variations of these words (or negatives of these words) or similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections, contingencies, goals, targets or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements and are not statements of historical fact. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States and the rules and regulations of the SEC, we are under no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date of this release.